I Know Best
by LaReinedesNieges
Summary: A cold man and a detached woman. Being my sister and me the only glue that keeps them together. I was nine when I realized many things.


**I Know Best.**

**Hi there, It's LaReinedesNieges again. This idea came to me as I was writing **_**Just… unexpected**_**. I couldn't get it out of my head until I started writing it. I hope you enjoy it.**

**I'm not an expert in English nor writing. Do tell if you see any mistakes.**

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_**Dr. Stone is not of my property, it belongs to Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi.**_

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**One-Shot**

I know what everybody thinks and whispers when they see my parents, my sister and me enter any place. A cold man and a detached woman. Being my sister and me the only glue that keeps them together.

_This is why there are so many divorces. _

_Poor children. It's sad to think that their parents won't give them the love children deserve._

_The young only marry for interest. What happened with love?_

.

My father, Senku Ishimagi, is the greatest scientist of the century. At least that's what it says in all the magazines that I read at the supermarket as my mother complains about the prices. Every time results in a lecture from him of capitalism and the big companies. Lecture that I don't really understand. My sister ignores the issue as she finds more amusing to play with the collar of mommy's navy-blue dress.

He's rather tall and skinny. His hair is white with green ends and is all pointing up. He has red eyes and being honest, my father can make scary faces sometimes. But mommy always makes me laugh as she scolds my father that he made Machi cry again with his face.

My friends think my dad is so cool. I knew that all ready, but I was still stunned how they don't stop chasing him around when he comes home early.

Dad knows everything. I'm not exaggerating, I can't really think of anything that dad doesn't know. Like the time I made mommy's birthday present. Well, not actually made per say, but I worked on it.

According to untie Ruri, my dad gave mommy a pure silver barrette the day they got married. It's special because it says in the back my mom's name: Kohaku Ishigami. I found it all alone in her jewelry box.

Mommy doesn't like to wear jewelry, the only jewels she has is that barrette and her engagement and wedding rings. She wears the barrette every time she must dress up, but… it isn't as shiny as before. I didn't want to ruin it, so I asked the only person I could think of.

.

– _Hey dad… can I ask you something?_

– _Sure…_ – dad turned for a second and nodded returning to a paper he was reading.

– _Can I clean this with soap? I want it to be shiny again_ – I showed him the barrette in my tiny palm.

– _What? Oh no, soap won't do anything… you need to reduce the oxide_ – again, what was he talking about?

– _So… how do I do that?_ – he turned again the moment I said that. My dad smiled as he stood up from his desk.

– _Come with me._

– _Where are we going?_

– _To the kitchen_ – he said in an obvious tone.

– _No! Mommy's in the kitchen with untie Ruri!_

– _And?_

– _Mommy can't see her present!_

Dad let out a teasing smile and patted my head. He kneeled before me.

– _Well then… what do you propose? You know she doesn't let you stay up late. _

– _Maybe… next time mommy goes to the grocery store; can you help me? _– I pleaded.

– _Very well_ – he said with a smile – _for now… put that thing back._

.

Dad and I wrapped the barrette in aluminum foil. I really don't get how is that going to help. But I trusted daddy.

We put it in a pot on the stove and added a couple spoons of baking soda. I panicked the moment he turned on the stove. Mom was going to kill me! If it melts, I'm dead! But, before I could express my concern, he lifted me for a few seconds and putted me on his lap.

I remained silent as we watched the pot. Sitting in the kitchen's table. I didn't say anything because I knew two things. One, dad knows what he is doing and if he wasn't worried, then me neither. And two, it something went wrong, I know for fact he was going down with me.

After a few minutes, we turned of the stove and using a spoon he put the aluminum in the table. I laughed as dad was unwrapping the foil with the mittens, he was having a hard time.

Once it was opened, I looked to the barrette. It was…. I mean, yeah… it was shinier than before, but… I could still see a lot of gray. I must have put a disappointed or sad expression, because dad snorted with a smirk.

– _What's with the long face? It worked._

– _Well yeah, but it's still gray_ – I pointed to the parts that weren't shiny.

– _This is tarnish. It's actually silver sulfide, and silver sulfide reacts with aluminum. The sulfur atoms are transferred from the silver to the aluminum, since they have more affinity to it. This way, the aluminum is oxidized, and the silver is reduced. We added baking soda, with is actually sodium bicarbonate, to make a basic solution. The reaction is more effective in a basic medium_ – he explained as he took the barrette and I followed him to the sink.

– _Take this_ – he offered me a little brush and let water fall from the sink – _now brush the tarnish_.

I was amazed when the gray stuff disappeared with the brush. This was science?! It's so cool! I mean, I could barely understand what he said, but it sounded so cool!

– _There you go, you cleaned silver_ – dad patted my hair as I dried the barrette.

Oh yeah, with my dad everything is certain.

My mother is a head of security in my father's company. She's blond and a little bit short. Dad likes to call her lioness – don't ask me why – but the last time he said that, he ended up with a bruise that lasted two weeks.

Her eyes are blue and so beautiful. Unlike dad, whose arms were like jelly and soft, my mom had very strong arms. My friends at school always say that their dad's protect them from the monsters under their beds. Mine didn't. He was the type of man that got tired going up the stairs.

One night, me and my sister were scared to death. We saw a scary face on our closet. Holding each other's hands, we turned on all the lights running to our parent's room. We opened the door to see dad snoring holding mommy by her stomach. Mommy had a pillow on her head.

Glancing each other, we knew exactly who to wake up.

– _Mommy… mommy_ – Mom's blue eyes looked at us with concern. She was a light sleeper.

– _We're scared. Can we sleep with you?_

– _Of course, come_ – her voice was so soft – _Senku, move. Make room, would ya?_ _The kids are sleeping with us tonight._

Dad was probably still asleep because he only let out a groan as mom pushed him aside to make room for us. I love being on my mom's arms. To tell the truth, I sometimes pretend to be scared to sleep with her.

With my mom everything is safe and sound.

My friends are afraid of my mom. They have seen this video on the internet, of how my mother bet up a man twice her size that almost hurt the great Senku Ishigami. That video was everywhere. I even saw it on the news, but my mother turned off the TV before I could even blink.

Mom is beautiful. I can count with my fingers the times I have seen mommy's face all red and hear her stammer. Most of them were after dad whispered something into her ear. Does it give mommy tickles when someone whispered in her ear? That's a thing I'm not entirely sure. However, there was one time I know why mommy blushed hard.

One time, mommy brought Machi and me to dad's office. I was playing on the ground when I looked up to see the pictures that laid on dad's desk. One of them, was of me and Machi on my sixth birthday. The other one I had never saw it.

– _Mommy, is that you?_ – I asked. She looked very different, wearing a white dress. She had something on her face – _Your face looks different._

– _Oh… I was wearing makeup that day, honey_ – she caressed my hair.

– _What's makeup?_

– _It's like… paint for the face._

It was weird that dad hadn't answered. I turned around to see he was closing in with Machi.

– _I'm all done. What are you looking at?_

– _We were looking to a picture of our wedding day._

What's a wedding day? I was about to ask when Machi spoke up. She was just starting to talk.

– _Pretty!_

– _Yeah, she looked beautiful that day._

Mom blushed like a tomato when dad said that.

**-o-o-o-**

I was nine when a friend became so sad. I asked him what was wrong, and his answer paralyzed me.

– _My parents are having a divorce. My dad told me he doesn't love my mom anymore._

– _I'm so sorry…_ – I didn't know what else to say.

– _I wanted to ask you… how do you get through this?_

– _What do you mean?_

– _How do you go through knowing that your parents don't love each other?_

– _But… my parents do love each other…_

It was after that I realized lots of things.

.

Uncle Chrome and auntie Ruri are right. People don't know anything about my parents.

They don't see that my father always gives us goodnight kisses to me and my sister. And they don't see how my father always finds time so check our homework every night as mommy read us bedtime stories. Always making up different voices to each character and exaggerating expressions. Dad always had a smile on his face as mommy did it.

They don't see when dad makes us dinner. Mom can't do anything more than chopping if we don't want the kitchen to catch fire.

They don't see when mommy's cheeks turned pink when my father smiles at her.

They don't see when dad makes new toys for us with uncle Chrome.

They don't see when mom smiles listening attentively to dad's rambling.

They don't see that they hold hands every time they walk side by side.

I love my parents.

I love when dad and mom get competitive over a game. It doesn't matter if it's a videogame or a tabletop game.

I love my mother's laugh as Machi and I play with my father's hair. It's so funny since no matter how much my sister and I try to keep it down, it always stays up.

I love my dad's mock laugh when mom gets angry for calling her _lioness_. It makes me laugh to see mom running after dad when he calls her that.

I love that dad can explain everything, and as I grew older, I noticed that he never gave us stupid reasons or explanations. Not even when we were kids.

I love that mom is the stronger person in the entire world, and as I grew older, I understood that not only in a physical way.

I love that my parents always heard Machi and me. Even when we talked about the stupidest things in history.

I loved the way my mom let out a few tears when I graduated and how my father smiled with pride.

I absolutely loved to see them make macabre plans when Machi started taking interest in boys.

Machi and I loved to see dad scared face when uncle Chrome blurted in front of mom that he used to make little experiments on us when we were babies. I still remember dad screaming to our uncle why the hell he decided to tell that after all these years.

I love to see that even after years, my parents always kiss when they say goodbye to each other. I found it super gross when I was a kid, but I got to admit… now I find it kind of sweet. Dad never leaves without a kiss from mom.

I love to see how my parents only have eyes for each other. As I got more conscious, I realized dad never looked to another woman in more than a friend/coworker way. Neither did my mom with other man. I love to know how faithful they are to each other.

.

_Poor woman, being married to a cold man like him that does not love her. Bet she's frustrated._

_Have you notice them? Not a single sign of affection. I heard that he only married her for protection._

_Poor man, being married to such a manly woman. He could do better._

Yeah, I know best.

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"**I Know Best" was finished on 01/27/2020. 2,052 words.**

**Last edition on 02/02/2020. 2,104 words.**

**LaReinedesNieges.**


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